Xbox 360, Longhorn to work together

News - Wireless controllers all around

Many PC owners were frustrated Microsoft's insistence on fouling up the Xbox's USB connectors so no PC peripherals, such as keyboards and joypads, would work with the console. For whatever reason, Microsoft has abandoned that approach, as least as far as the Xbox 360 and the next incarnation of the Windows operating system is concerned. At today's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2005 keynote presentation, Microsoft head honcho Bill Gates briefly broke away from talk of 64-bit applications and tablet PCs to fire off a little bit of interesting news for gamers.

Longhorn, the codename for the next Windows OS, will work with the Xbox 360's controllers. The console's wireless controllers will no doubt require some sort of USB dongle to work with PCs running on Longhorn. This announcement backs up other news about tightened integration between Microsoft's next console and operating system. Previously it had been mooted that PCs would get their own Live service at some time, and the XNA unified development language will be cross-platform as well.

With the pre-E3 launch of the Xbox 360 looming we'll know a lot more soon.